Zuru Mini Brands Create Masterpieces

 I am also rapidly developing an addiction to Zuru Mini Brand Masterpieces.

I did a minor in art history in college. I love art history.

I just love these tiny cute doll-sized pieces of art!

(I wrote a 20 page paper on Botticelli as my honors project my senior year of college. I was so proud of that!)

The frames are very pretty too. I have seen people make the frames look even better by using paint markers on them.

These are probably best scaled for AG mini dolls or 1/12 scaled dollhouses.

I feel like they can work for AG too. You could prop them on a mantelpiece or on a desk. 

Or, as you see here, on a bookcase.

I just wanted to share if anyone was looking at these and wondering what the scale is!

Zuru Mini Brand Books

 I love books, and I love minis.

I do have a bit of an addiction to the Zuru mini brand books.

These are too small for AG. They are approximately half the size of AG books.

They are however, perfect for mini dolls or for 1/12 size dollhouses.

They have text inside that you can read with a microscope.

They're really cute and fun and addictive! Each surprise ball comes with three mini books and costs $8 to $10.

They also come with a bookmark and another accessory, like a cat, a candle, a lamp or a bookcase shelf.

I had a friend wondering about the scale, so I realized that I should share a picture to give people a better idea.

I would also like to point out that the dollhouse is not even done yet, and it is already making it easier to do a quick photo shoot!

Dollhouse Floor Mistake

 It's a good thing that I decided to lay out the dollhouse to see how it would fit the space.

I seem to have accidentally ordered two different colors of wood floor effect contact paper and used both of them, without noticing.

OOPS.

I am glad that I caught this. I prefer the darker flooring color.

I was able to order another roll of contact paper in the right color. 

Otherwise, this mistake would have really annoyed me. 

This is a relatively easy fix, and I found it in good time. 

I just wanted to share this in case anyone thought I was an infallible crafter. It's good to know that everyone makes mistakes, right? 

Dollhouse First Floor Mock Up

 I haven't put the dollhouse together yet. I still need to do the windows and curtains.

But I am impatient, so as I cleaned out space in my sewing room, I put together a mock up of what the dollhouse will look like on the first floor, and how the furniture will fit inside.

This is the carport. I want it to be a garden/ spot for toasting marshmallows.

I bought Blaire's garden on Facebook Marketplace for $30 for this purpose!

I have Kit's chicken somewhere, I should let her hang out with the silkie chicken.

I got the pots of lavender at the thrift store.

I am not going to put in the hot tub, so there won't be a second story over this space.

This is the parlor.

I customized the fireplace that came with the dollhouse kit. The couch is non-AG and came off Marketplace. Maybe someday it will get replaced with Rebecca's couch. The issue it has is that the back of it doesn't look very good, so it needs to be up against a wall.

The Turkish rug is a mouse pad!

The little vase on top of the fireplace came from the thrift store.

I wanted Rebecca's sideboard, but it looks like it won't fit. It's a good thing I didn't spend $200 on that on ebay.

Here is the library, which was formerly the kitchen.

I made almost all of the tiny books. The vase is from the thrift store. The Turkish rug is a mousepad.

I made one mistake. When I looked at the room dimensions, I thought that two of these bookcases would fit side by side. They won't. I must have mistaken the height of the room for the width of the room. So that's a little disappointing, but it's a cute cozy room.

I am looking forward to finishing the dollhouse!

There will be a lot more little knickknacks added to the decor when it is finished.

I am definitely hanging pictures on the walls as well! I haven't worked out HOW yet, but it will happen.

New Accessory for Dollhouse- China Dogs

 I'm kind of excited for this one!

I have loved Anne of Green Gables for a long time. This is thanks to my mom, who fell in love with the series around 1994 and got us all the books for Easter.

The first book started a little slowly for 1994-me, and Anne was a little too mischievous, but I did learn to lover her. 

In Anne of the Island, when Anne is in college, Anne and her friends rent a house. Anne loves the antique china dogs that sit in front of the mantelpiece. The dogs are named Gog and Magog and are green and white.

The dogs are later gifted to her as a wedding gift.

I just realized that Anne's dogs were probably Staffordshire china dogs. I started digging around to see if I could find a mini version, and I found blue and white Staffordshire dog salt and pepper shakers.

Link to purchase

I am glad that I spent all that time customizing the fireplace. It will be worthy of Gog and Magog!

Painting the Dollhouse Entrance

 The front door of the dollhouse is set in a wall that is plain grey plastic.

I guess it has modern vibes, but I thought it was ugly.

It has a lot of gadgets, including the door, a working light, a doorbell, an alarm, a doggy door, etc.

All of this would make it really hard to wallpaper over.

So I decided to paint it instead.

On the inside, I painted the grout and the doorway antique white.

I was so worried that I was going to ruin the whole thing!

Then I painted the bricks a brick red, and the doggy door brown.

In some cases, several layers of paint were needed.

I didn't mind if a little grey showed through on the bricks, though. I felt that it added realism.

On the other side of the door, I painted the doorway and the house number black. I painted the doggy doorway and the box for the doorbell brown.

I left some of the grey on this side of the house. I felt that it was okay for a house exterior.

I also added varnish on top of the paint. The paint I used was acrylic and chipped very easily.

I am not going to lie, I am very proud of this. 

It's not perfect, but it's a huge improvement over a dull grey hunk of plastic.

The other thing is, the paints that I used were paints from my grandfather. 

He used them to make toys for his grandkids in the 90s. It made me feel close to him, and it helped me to remember him as a warm, doting grandfather.

Dollhouse Curtain Rods

 Even the curtain rods were a project in this dollhouse.

All the reviews of this dollhouse complained about the curtain rods, and how the curtains wouldn't move smoothly.

They're basically unpainted blocks of wood.

So instead of complaining about them, I decided to work on them.

I have to overcomplicate everything for this project!

I sanded them down first.

Then I painted them brown.

I covered the brown paint with a very subtle gold sparkle paint. I only like it because it's subtle, haha.

Last, I varnished the curtain rods.

I need to attach them to the dollhouse walls, once I made the curtains.

I can either screw them into the wall, as the manufacturer intended, which would make them permanent.

OR I could mount them on velcro so that the curtains can be swapped out.

I don't really have any plans to swap the curtains in the future, but I might try the velcro anyway, just in case.

Anyway, the main idea is to have functional curtain rods that don't take attention away from other parts of the dollhouse.